


It's Only a Game

by not_worth_a_bean



Category: Ender's Game - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, It's pretty good, Shipping, but not like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-02-15 01:19:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2210274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_worth_a_bean/pseuds/not_worth_a_bean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of one of the the pilots in Bean's toon</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Only a Game

The alien threat was real, and Nix was right in the middle of it. He was only eighteen years old when the buggers came for the first time, ravaging the earth. Wanting to protect his family, Nix enlisted, trained, and was put on a ship, and sent off into space to fight the buggers, officially called Formix. He would grow up on his ship and live in outer space while years passed back on earth. His family would get older and older, always remembering his bravery and sacrifice. It was quite the honor to be thought of as the hero of his family, Nix decided. He only wished his decision hadn’t hurt his family. His mother’s tears as he hugged her goodbye still stood prominently in his memories.

  
He wished he could see his family again, but he knew thoughts like that were dangerous. Nobody wanted to tear up in the middle of a battle. Besides, he would never see his family again, ever. That fact was as clear to him as the explosions that lit up the other ships around him. Nix laughed silently to himself, here he was, knee deep in the final battle against the buggers and thinking about home. He had signed up to be here, and all he could focus on was his family and how he would much rather be home with them.

  
He bit his lip, the pain bringing his back to reality, which was a place nobody would ever want to be. Their troops were ridiculously outnumbered, and were being shot down faster than one could even comprehend. Half of him, the young boy that didn’t understand the horrors that war could bring, wondered why their commander was ordering them to die. Nix wanted to shout to whoever was in charge that they were people, people that were being destroyed by an alien force too powerful to beat. That whatever move they made was suicide. The other part of him, the experienced soldier, understood that this carnage was what he had signed up for. By fighting in this battle, he was protecting not only his family, but everyone back on earth. If they could do the impossible, and win this fight, they would never have to worry about being murdered again.

  
One of Nix’s sister ships blew up in a fiery ball of twisted, red hot metal. Nix felt a little more hope that they could come out on top drain out. He wanted to be gone, sitting in a living room somewhere reading the news. He waited for his next command. Before it could be relayed to him though, the small red light that signified an override flashed on. A small voice squeaked out of his headset. Nix knew it was the voice of his commander. Wait, wait just a minute, he thought. Are the people coming up with the battle plans...children? Nix dismissed the idea as soon as it came into his mind. That was absolutely ridiculous. He shookhimself, then paid attention to what the voice was saying. It wasn’t a command. It was a biblical scripture.

  
“O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. Would God I could die for thee Absalom my son, my sons.” said the commander.  
At that exact moment, Nix knew that there would be no chance that anyone was coming out of this battle alive. The voice crackled out, and Nix was given a small moment to feel and make sense of the emotions flowing through him. A tear leaked out his eye before he could stop it. He was going to die. His end was approaching, and there was nothing he or anyone else could do. He just hoped his death was worth it, though, he knew if they won, it would be. Earth would be safe, and, and...nobody would have to watch as a family member they loved got shredded in front of their eyes, like when the buggers attacked China. No mother would have to deal with the guilt of seeing their child die and only being able to hold their hand as they coughed up blood, like in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

  
He swallowed thickly as he got the next command. He was to barrel down as fast as he could and launch his weapon, the little doctor or Dr. Device, against the planet. He closed his eyes and thought of his mother and father back on earth, who would be probably six feet underground by now. He thought of his baby sister, who would be old and wrinkly, even though she was only three when he left. He started downward. There was some cover, but at the speed the other ships were being picked off, it wasn’t much of a help. Nix and everyone else were on their own.

  
He sped on and on, still plummeting. By some miracle of God, he made it into the atmosphere of the bugger’s home world. Nix watched as the other ships burned up one by one. It lasted until only his ship and one other were left. The red override button blinked on, and again, the commander spoke directly to him. “Don’t launch it. Set it off inside your ship. God be with you.” The red light faded away. Nix would die alone in a magnificent fire explosion in the atmosphere of an alien planet, light years away from anything he had ever called home. But Nix did not feel dread. He understood the plan. The explosion would cause a chain reaction throughout the planet's atmosphere, taking out the remaining bugger fighters and the planet. It was a brilliant plan. He pressed the button that would set it off.

  
Nix didn’t believe in God. He never had. But right now, he hoped that someone, anyone, was listening to his first and last prayer. He prayed that they would win this war, that the enemy would never harm earth again. He prayed that whatever was left of his family would be safe, and that there would never be another threat. His ship burst into red hot flames. Nix was seared into nothing. The flames spread and chewed up the atmosphere. The planet's surface bubbled and then finally exploded, taking out the rest of the human and bugger ships alike. Every single living or nonliving thing was annihilated. There was nothing left. Everything but rocky debris was gone.

  
There would be no bodies to send home to families, though it would be common to find that there were no families left to mourn the fallen due to relativity. The only tributes the soldiers that had fought, died, and carried out a xenocide would get would be a statue and a biblical scripture. However, all of that would be figured out later. Now, miles and miles away from the scene of xenocide, on a blacked out planet filled with the ghosts of dead aliens, a group of twelve children all under the age of sixteen whooped and shouted with joy. They had just won an impossible game, and for a few more minutes, would remain unaware of the blood on their hands.

**Author's Note:**

> There we go


End file.
